Posted in: Experienced, Qualifications & High Education 9 March 2010 12 answers
Anonymous

Question: Interested in Forex Trading. Any advice on the courses/ training I need to undertake?

Answers (12)

  1. Sorry for irrelevant post, but it seems that there are less answers know on forum – job market improves.

  2. Mike, are you looking to proprietary trade (ie for your own account) or to trade on behalf of a bank / trading institution?

  3. On behalf of a bank or trading institution. Why ? Regarding question asked by FXdreamer I would say that you should finish decent university and apply for graduate programmes in trading at banks. I don’t think any courses will increase your chances of getting in.

  4. Assuming that you’re interviewing for FX positions at banks – you should familairise yourself with the following. Forwards, non-deliverable forwards, Options (esp hedging strategy basics – straddles, strangles, etc), swaps, cross currency swaps. Also (assuming that you are hoping to join a grad programme and so have little knowledge), get familair with the basic jargon/technical issues. Do you know what ‘dealing out of spot’ is, ‘cable’ price, popular currency pairs, interest rate differentials are etc. It’s not the easiest area in which to prepare for – but you should be able to master quite a bit of the basic / intermediate level stuff as much of what you will learn can be gleaned from text books.

  5. Does anyone think that FRM might be useful for getting into graduate program in trading ?

  6. Does anyone think VBA might be useful for getting into graduate program in trading ?

  7. No idea what FRM is, and VBA is (broadly) useful across all areas of banking / trading – though by no means essential (have never used it myself – though know the basics).

  8. FRM is GARP Financial Risk Manager ( certificate, qualification ) covers all fundamental aspects of financial risk and takes 400 hours for preparing. How important it is to know about risk management in trading? Is it possible to start as a risk manager and then switch to trading? Or traders usually start in operations and then move to trading desk ?

  9. FRM is a waste of time – if you’re going to spend any amount of time studying, just do the CFA – it’s recognised and respected by every bank at every level. Whilst it is of course an Asset Mgmt qualification – still useful (and heard of) on a trading desk. As with all these roles, it’s best to (try) and start on a trading grad scheme, or at least work FO on a trading floor/dealing room/Treasury ops. The longer you spend away from this type of environment, the more difficult it will be to make the move across – especially to an area such as trading. There are simply not as many paths to trading as there are to IBD.

  10. Thanks a lot, much clearer now.

  11. Mike, are you looking to proprietary trade (ie for your own account) or to trade on behalf of a bank / trading institution?

    I am looking to trade independently and not on behalf of any institution. Any advice on how to start out?

  12. Well, if you think carefully, then just imagine how much money you have to have to make 20 000 gross per annum. Let’s say you will make unbelievable profit of 20% a year, in this case u need 100 000 in your account. Second thing is all the tools u need for trading that cost quite a lot. Finally, you probably need good knowledge of what you are doing. Try demo account and you will see how “easy” it is. U need university education to get at least into proprietary trading houses like Futex. However, anyway I don’t find them very attractive (see my post). In general, you either get into IB and become trader or try to do something totally different.